


Dinosaurs and Cavemen

by graestu



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 02:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21067118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graestu/pseuds/graestu
Summary: The Doctor shows Rose and Mickey that dinosaurs and cavemen really met - and usually ate - each other.





	Dinosaurs and Cavemen

"Where to next?" said The Doctor. "Time? Space? Your choice!" But he was already setting coordinates while putting on his leather jacket.

"What, like heads or tails?" asked Rose.

"Only if you can imagine the coin landing on both sides at once," he replied.

"Rose had an amusing idea," suggested Mickey, about to embarrass her. "The Moon. But _before_ Neil Armstrong. Not to boast, or anything, just as a private joke."

"Oh," said The Doctor, pushing a lever. "I thought kids your age were obsessed with dinosaurs and cavemen."

" 'Kids' ? 'Our age' ? " spluttered Rose.

"How do I know?" protested The Doctor. "Look, I've been away for a long time! I'm obviously out of touch!"

"That's true!" agreed Rose. "Otherwise, you'd know that one of the first disappointments you learn in school is that dinosaurs and cavemen never actually met!"

"They told you that, did they?" snorted The Doctor. "Better not look outside, then!"

Rose and Mickey nervously opened the doors and peered out.

The TARDIS was standing near a forest, in a sunny but breezy field.

"Come on!" said The Doctor, waving his binoculars as he strode out towards the cliff edge. "Dinosaurs and cavemen you asked for, dinosaurs and cavemen you'll get!"

"Did we ask for dinosaurs and cavemen?" Rose whispered to Mickey.

He shrugged and shook his head, not entirely sure.

"But beware of the ants!" The Doctor warned. "You really don't want a prehistoric ant biting your foot - "

"There's a T Rex round every corner, and he's worried about ants!" said Mickey.

"You didn't let me finish," said The Doctor. "Off! You don't want a prehistoric ant biting your foot _off_. They're the size of cats round here."

And now, extra alert, it was Mickey who spotted a movement in the grass, as the first creature they had encountered wriggled into view.

"A centipede!" laughed Rose, as an adder's sized head emerged.

"That's not a centipede," said Mickey. "That's not even a millipede. That's a billipede! Or a trillipede!"

"It's as long as my stripey scarf!" said Rose as it passed.

The Doctor smiled nostalgically, but said nothing.

They soon reached the edge of the cliff.

Below was a vast plain, dotted with giant trees, and with a wide river winding through. On the opposite bank, a herd of stegosauruses were drinking.

The Doctor handed Rose the binoculars, while Mickey continued guarding their feet against ants.

As she looked closer, Rose could make out men with spears and bows and arrows hiding in the bushes, stalking their prey.

One stegosaurus, slightly apart from the others, was the target. Rose turned away as hunters crept nearer, preparing to strike...

Mickey's turn, and he kept up a commentary, _"Here we see the stegosaurus. Mighty reptiles visiting the waterhole on their annual migration. And here, the caveman. Distant ancestor -" _Hang on, something's spooked them. Not just the stegosauruses, the hunters too."

"Has it got a bit darker?" Rose asked.

"It has!" confirmed The Doctor. "It's an eclipse! We've got to get back to the TARDIS! NOW! Once it gets dark, that's when the pterodactyls come out of the woods! Then we're finished!"

They ran as fast as they could, stumbled inside, and slammed the door with an exhausted sigh of relief.

"Sorry about that," said The Doctor. "But it did prove dinosaurs and cavemen coexisted. Sadly, of course, the dinosaurs ate all the cavemen to extinction, then died of starvation. Millions of years passed, leaving no trace except the fossilised remains that have yet to be dug up."

Rose and Mickey wondered what else they had been taught might be wrong.

"Still..." said Rose. "Neil Armstrong... First man on the moon... At least that's true, right? Doctor?"

"They do fill your heads with rubbish, Rose Tyler," The Doctor grinned back, as if was her fault. "Where do you think we've been for the last half hour?"


End file.
